12 March, 2007

INJUSTICE CONTINUES: THREATS, DENIAL, MASS EXODUS

Photo #1: One of Srebrenica's child victims, underage boy's bones. Many children were slaughtered during Srebrenica genocide in which over 8,000 people perished. (Photo courtesy of the Advocacy Project)

Photo #2: Among the body bags: Zlatan Sabanovic from the ICMP. (Photo courtesy of the Advocacy Project)

Serbs continue to deny Srebrenica Genocide; Plan to build "Genocide Institute" in Srebrenica which purpose would be to deny Srebrenica Genocide and International Judgments. In 2004, a Serb commission's final report on the 1995 Srebrenica massacre acknowledged that the mass murder of Bosniak men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces was planned and that it constituted genocide. However, Bosnian Serb government under Milorad Dodik continues to publicly deny genocide.

Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik announced that the Serb Republic would initiate the founding of an institute for the research of genocide that would have its headquarters in Srebrenica and he sent an appeal to all sides in Bosnia and Herzegovina for them to do this together.

Dodik, who has publicly denied Srebrenica Genocide numerous times (last time as a reaction to the International Court's judgment confirming Genocide in Srebrenica), will attempt to deny it one more time with a creation of so called "Genocide Institute" in Srebrenica whose primary goal would be to find evidence to support his Srebrenica Genocide denial conclusions.

"We will invite other institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to join us in this initiative so that we can found an institute which will, with a sufficient dose of responsibility and objectivity, provide a scientific assessment of all the events that took place earlier, with the aim to prepare the younger generations for everything that took place in this area." - said Dodik at today's press conference.

Srebrenica genocide survivors announce mass exodusPartly as a result of continued Srebrenica Genocide denial by Bosnian Serb Government officials, the Bosniaks who had returned to Srebrenica have announced collective emigration from the town because staying there is no longer possible.

This warning comes from the initiative committee for collective emigration. They set March 14 as their final deadline.

After the International Criminal Tribunal's ruling, those who had returned do not want to stay in an entity that had committed genocide. They therefore ask that their demands be met, among them, assigning a special status to Srebrenica, which Haris Silajdzic, member of the multi-ethnic Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has also supported.

Serb Republic Prime Minister Milorad Dodik has invited the people to stay. He alleges the Government is doing everything they can to improve the economy and all other life conditions for Srebrenica citizens, including those who had returned. "We will invest significant means into Srebrenica, several tens of millions of marks" – Dodik said.

"Considering that the Tribunal decided that the Serb Republic government had committed genocide in Srebrenica, we must start the process of granting special status to this former UN protected zone as well as to other municipalities in eastern Bosnia where the genocide victims come from, and we must actively persevere and work on the gradual establishment of a constitutional organization which will fully annul the results of the genocide." – wrote Silajdzic in his statement.

Srebrenica Returnees Receive Threats

In the proclamation, the Committee states that Srebrenica has been left out of all Serb Republic's development plans and that this still continues to be the case now that Milorad Dodik holds the office of Prime Minister.

On the wings of his nationalist rhetoric, extremist groups are becoming more prominent, with their criminal symbols and exclamations.

The refugees who returned to Srebrenica are receiving threats over the phone, urging them to move out and announcing a repetition of the events that took place in May 1999, when returnees were attacked and killed.

Srebrenica citizens are thinking of the possible Srebrenica Genocide Memorial centre move. But, Munira Subasic of the “Mothers of Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves Movement” association says life is hard in Srebrenica, but the dead cannot be touched or transferred.

"The Potocari Memorial centre marks a crime scene, while Srebrenica cannot have the same status as up to now after the Hague verdict, because crime must be punished, and not rewarded." - Subasic said.

Srebrenica humanitarian money being mismanaged

"Before the war, 37,000 people of all nationalities were living in Srebrenica. Today, there are 3,700 of them and one cannot live there any more." - said Hakija Meholjic, Social Democratic Party (SDP) Chief Committee member and returnee, who calls Srebrenica “money laundrette”.

"For Srebrenica needs, around 700 million convertible marks entered BH specialised, while only around 50 million cm were implemented in Srebrenica." - said Meholjic.

"I know 220 million cm came from Saudi Arabia alone, and it was said from the Tuzla Party of Democratic Action (SDA) Canton committee that the authorities on a higher level will decide on the matter because there is no smart enough of a person in Srebrenica to decide on this amount of money." - claims Meholjic.

He believes that “Srebrenica is the biggest money laundrette in BH” because “the largest part of the money for Srebrenica ended up in Sarajevo or Swiss banks."

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Srebrenica Genocide is not a matter of anybody's opinion; it's a judicial fact recognized first by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and subsequently by the International Court of Justice.